The Greatest Leaders are defined by Principles and guided by Conscience.

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Angela Merkel, German Chancellor

A woman that needs no further introduction, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been for the past 10 years Forbes most powerful woman in the world, and 7 times at that including 2013.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel

Not surprising. After all, she’s the head-of-state of Europe’s largest economy.

Now for this kind of Leader, being at the top of the world, ideal discussions should not roam on her background whether on education or experience as we do in many corporate executives – too shallow.

This is all about decisions. Her policies and decisions that shaped her country and influenced the world.

Hmm… actually executives should also be judged that way, being decision-makers of their companies and possibly industry influencers at that; however, since many are still stuck with the old kind of thinking – tradition remains.

Anyhow, known to be “The Decider” of the EU, let’s see how Merkel handled some issues that surrounded her.

One, her hard-line austerity prescription for dealing with the European debt crisis. As we all know, she does not want to pay for the “extravagance” of other countries. She contends that this is the result of their “irresponsibility.” Makes sense. But of course, this was challenged by EU members.

First, does she want to break up the European Union then form a new organization? Being a member, shouldn’t she help out instead of blame? Okay, she may be capable but her reasoning on extravagance is just like finger pointing.

Yes, there should be some accountability for this, and this is why they should examine the process and the banking system carefully – yet they even quarrel over the supervision of banks. See?

Things are a biiit better now but the machine would not have been out of control if only there was not just this “discipline” that Merkel would want to imply – but I say, a better system. In this case, she could have reviewed that system to as far as when she first took office.

Two, EU migration issues has been dividing Germany. There’s this concern on competition for employment and welfare handouts that the Germans wish to address – even requiring “fingerprinting” on new comers.

Ah, this is just like “paying” for others’ debts.

Since there was this trouble about austerity, now it’s benefit tourism. Then again, it’s a sign that they really need help. And though the Germans say they’re doing enough for immigrants, Merkel should further improve trading between countries to slow down the influx of “tourists” to Germany. Such a move is one key to employment.

Three, some of her controversies involved issues on Muslims from her presence in the M100 Media Award to Muslim integration to supporting state schools enabling Islamic religious instruction. Here, she made her stand but since multiculturalism failed, she sort of retracted saying “immigrants should integrate and adopt Germany’s culture and values.”

That’s okay, you can not just lose your identity for someone else but don’t be rough. If you want to be respected, respect other cultures as well. Understand that discrimination only breeds chaos as witnessed around the world.

Actually, these are just “simple” issues. Really. But it’d give us a hindsight on how she would handle even bigger ones.